


Bisclavret

by Zeborah



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Domestic Violence, Gen, Reid cracks the case with medieval French literature, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 08:49:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4822772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeborah/pseuds/Zeborah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bisclavret, since I'm writing fic,<br/>is a little one that should be quick.<br/><em>Bisclavret</em> was the Breton word;<br/><em>garwolf</em> was Norman; <em>werewolf</em> a third.</p><p>(Does not actually continue in rhyming couplets, sorry. But Hotch is a werewolf, if that makes up for it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bisclavret

**Author's Note:**

> You've read plenty of other stories about people turning into werewolves and roaming in packs. In reality werewolves are savage beasts, at least while the rage is on them: eating people, causing mayhem, no better than serial killers. You need to bear this in mind while continuing with the story.

Aaron Hotchner lived in DC. He was well-known and respected: he worked in the prosecutor's office, was good at his job, and was possibly the only non-corrupt man in the city. His boss and colleagues wouldn't have known what to do without him.

He'd married his highschool sweetheart, and I'll go to the mat for Haley. She was sweet and had a dry wit, and most importantly she was confident in her own worth. That's why he loved her; and she loved his sweetness and his staunch moral code: so they were perfect for each other.

Except for one thing. Every week he was gone from Friday night to Monday morning. She didn't know where he was, what he did, or what was happening to him — even his staff couldn't tell her anything.

One Monday he came home in such high spirits she couldn't hold back her questions any longer. "Aaron," she said, "babe, I really want to ask you something, if I dared— But I'm afraid you'll get upset, and more than anything I couldn't bear that."

He hugged her when he heard this, drawing her close and kissing her. "Haley," he said, "just ask me! I'll tell you anything you want to know, if I can."

"Aaron, I am _so_ relieved to hear that," she said, and it all came out. "Aaron, I live in terror every day when you're away over the weekend. My heart just fills with fear, I'm so afraid I'm going to lose you. Babe, if you don't help me out here I feel like I'll die. Where do you go? You have to tell me: what double-life are you living? Where do you stay? You're in love with someone else, aren't you? I know it — and if that's true you're a goddamn bastard!"

"Haley," he said in despair, "God, please! I really can't tell you. It'd drive you away, and that'd destroy me."

Hearing this just made Haley more anxious. She brought it up again, and kept pleading with him to tell her what was going on.

Finally he confessed, "Haley, I take on a wolf's form. I plunge into that great forest — I like it best in the thickest part of the woods. I live on whatever prey I can get."

When, ashamed, he stopped his story, she swallowed in terror and asked steadily, "Do you undress? Or what do you wear?"

"Haley," he said sheepishly, "I go naked."

"Where do you put your clothes? Tell me, for God's sake."

"Haley, I won't tell you that, no. If I lost them because of that, from that moment on I know I'd stay in wolf's form forever. Nothing could help me. I'd never change back till I got them again. That's why I don't want anyone to find out."

"Aaron," Haley replied firmly, "you have to know I love you more than anything in the world. You shouldn't hide things from me, or be afraid I'm not loyal to you in any way. That's not how marriage works. What have I ever done wrong? What have I done that makes you not trust me? Do the right thing! Just tell me!"

She kept insisting until finally he had to tell her. "Near the wood along the road where I come home is an old chapel I often use. There's a wide stone beneath a bush, and a hollow underneath: I leave my clothes there until I can come back home."

All these shocking things rang in Haley's ears. Her heart pounded in terror as she thought of the danger she must be in. And who would believe her if she said this pillar of the community was a killer, a man-eating werewolf? Even if they did, wouldn't they just kill him? All she could think about, over and over, was how she could get out, completely escape, because there was no way she could share his bed after this.

*

For a long time a man in the same neighbourhood had been obsessed with Haley, flirting with her, mooning over her, doing everything to attract her attention. She'd never loved him back, or given him any kind of encouragement. But now she thought he might be the only one who could help her, so on Saturday she sent him a text to meet her.

"Ian, babe," she said in determination, "cheer up. I know everything you've been going through waiting for what I'm about to give you. No-one will come between us again. I love you and I want to be yours: please be mine!"

Over the moon, he kissed her. Somberly she kissed him back and promised to marry him. Then she told him how Aaron went away in the weekends, and what he turned into. She showed him the route he always took to work, and sent him to get his clothes. So Aaron was trapped in wolf-form by his own wife.

And, everyone having known him to go missing so often, it was generally agreed that he'd finally left for good. They searched for him and there was a full investigation, but they couldn't find a trace of him. Finally they closed the case. Haley's marriage was celebrated to the man who'd pursued her so long.

*

So the matter lay there for a whole year, until one day the BAU was hunting an UnSub in the area. They followed a lead to the same woods where the wolf was living. The local police had their dogs, and they soon picked up his scent. For a long time the police and their dogs chased him, until they almost had him. And they would have shot him to pieces, but then he picked out the BAU and ran to them for cover.

To beg for his life he leaped at Rossi, and put a paw in his hand to shake it. JJ saw this apparent attack and lifted her gun in fear. Reid stopped her and called to the rest of the team, "Hey, look — everyone, look at this! This is incredible."

Morgan added, "We've never seen anything like this before."

"It's shaking my hand," said Rossi.

"It's like it's human," said JJ. 

Prentiss realised, "It's begging for mercy."

"Take those dogs away!" Morgan shouted at once to the police. "Hold your fire!"

"This isn't a man-eater gone berserk," Rossi said: "it understands what's going on and has feelings like a person."

"Let's get out of here," said Prentiss. "Our trail's gone cold."

"We're packing it in for tonight," JJ told the police. "And we're taking the wolf with us."

With that, the BAU turned and went.

The wolf followed close by. It didn't try to escape but stayed near at hand. Losing them was the only thing it was afraid of. The BAU took it back to Quantico where they were working on their latest case. Its behaviour fascinated them, because they'd never seen a peaceful werewolf before.

And then it stared intently at something on their photoboard until they saw the clue they'd missed, and they were even more amazed. They solved the case, and from then on treated the wolf as part of the team.

They made sure everyone knew to treat it with respect, and not to harm it, or dare to shoot it, for the BAU's sake. They gave it good food and plenty to drink. They were all delighted to keep it and look after it. Every day it went to work on cases with them. Everyone thought it was an amazing animal, because it was so gentle, well-mannered, and polite that it wouldn't ever put a foot wrong. Wherever the BAU travelled it didn't want to be left behind, so it constantly flew with them. It was easy to see it belonged with them.

*

Now listen to what happened next. JJ was holding a press conference. She'd asked all the media to attend — everyone who worked on crime stories — to help her put out the message about the killer they were hunting.

That very man who'd married Haley came to the press conference, well-equipped and richly dressed. He never thought in his life he'd find Aaron so close. He came to the place, and the second the wolf saw him standing there, it leaped for him with a single bound, took his arm in its jaw and dragged him down. It would have treated him very roughly if Rossi hadn't called it and threatened it with his gun.

It tried to attack the man again, but Rossi held it back. Many of the reporters there were aghast at the sight, and demanded whether it'd ever treated anyone else like this. All the BAU insisted there must be a reason it was doing this. Maybe the man, or someone like him, had hurt it — because it clearly wanted to give him his just deserts.

This time the wolf let it drop until JJ could finish her press conference and the media started to leave. Each reporter went to air their stories, one by one. The man the wolf attacked was among the very first to go. The wolf glared after him, which won't surprise anyone.

*

Not long later, the BAU was on another case which took them, tireless in the search for justice, back to the same woods where they'd found the wolf. It came along with them, and with its help they put out a profile of the man they wanted: successful, obsessive, charming in pursuit but brutal in conquest.

Haley heard it on the news. She dressed bravely in long sleeves and thick makeup to go and talk to the team — to give them a tip, though she knew it would cost her dear.

When the wolf saw her come in, no-one could have held it back. It ran like mad to the attack — tore her sleeves and roughly pawed her nose.

The BAU couldn't imagine anything worse than this. They surrounded it there, ready to shoot it full of holes, when Reid blurted out, "Bisclavret!"

"Biscla-what?" Morgan demanded.

"It's a lay by Marie de France based on a Breton— It doesn't matter, just hear me out. This— this wolf's been living with us, and every one of us has watched it, for over fourteen months; we've travelled all over the country with it and it's never hurt anyone, or shown any kind of criminal disposition—"

"Except to this woman right here!"

"I know, but just bear with me, because I really think it's got a good reason."

Here Garcia put in, "My lords, my sire, it turns out the husband she came to inform on is the same man our fine furry friend attacked last month." ("That was the trigger," Prentiss realised as Garcia continued:) " _But_ , by the faith I owe you, her _first_ husband was that prosecutor who disappeared two years ago and no-one ever found out what happened to him."

JJ said, "We should question her, and see if she doesn't have more to tell us about why the wolf attacked her."

"If she knows something, make her say it," Prentiss said. "We've seen some pretty strange things around here recently."

Rossi agreed with this advice. Morgan and Prentiss went to seize her husband, their UnSub. Meanwhile Rossi and JJ took Haley into an interrogation room and asked her some hard questions. Reid, staying with the wolf outside, noticed it hadn't hurt her in its attack: only revealed the bruises her husband had given her.

From anguish just as much as from fear, she told them everything about Aaron: how he'd confessed about turning into a monster and going to prey in the dark woods; how from fear for her life and his she'd turned to another man to steal the clothes that he hid there; how since she'd done this he'd never been seen anywhere; but she believed — her mind was set — that the wolf was definitely Aaron Hotchner.

Rossi wanted the clothes on the spot, whether she'd give them up or make him get a warrant. She told him where to find them and JJ fetched them for the wolf.

They set them down in front of its nose, but the wolf ignored them completely.

Reid spoke up again, since he was right last time too: "JJ, you're going about it all wrong. He'll never make the least move to get dressed in front of you and change out of a wolf's form. It's just terribly— I mean— Some things are just too embarrassing."

Catching on, JJ suggested to Rossi, "Take him up to your office and bring his lost clothes with him. Leave him alone for a good long time — then we'll see if he becomes a man."

Rossi himself took the wolf into the room, closed the blinds tight, and left him there.

When it had been long enough he returned. He didn't go alone but brought the rest of the team, and they entered the office all together. On the unit chief's sofa they saw, lying fast asleep, Aaron Hotchner in his human form.

Garcia ran to hug him tight. They all shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder.

When things settled down, he was offered his job back at the prosecutor's office, but he preferred to keep working with the BAU instead: as a man or a wolf, it made no difference to how much he helped their cases.

The man who'd stolen Aaron's clothes and more recently murdered three women was sent to prison for life. Haley went to stay with her sister and recover from the whole ordeal. She and Aaron never mended their marriage. As often as he'd been away before, now he was away even more, and he loved his work too much to ever leave it for her. But she did come to understand that the prey he ate was never human — and he, that he could have avoided a lot of trouble if he'd told her more in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> So this entire story, including summary and notes, is a blatant and close adaptation of Marie de France's story of Bisclavet, based on the translation at <http://www.werewolfpage.com/myths/bisclavret.html>. I did squeeze in some more psychological justification for why people did what they did (and accordingly had to rewrite the very end) because I find the original unsatisfying in that regard and because I will totally go to the mat for Haley!


End file.
